Advantia, an ambulatory women’s health group with more than 250,000 patients and 140 providers across Greater Washington, has absorbed Heartland’s 180,000 patients and 50 providers, including doctors, nurse practitioners and midwives. It’s Advantia’s first expansion outside of the Mid-Atlantic, “a big step for us because we want to be a national company,” said Advantia CEO Sean Glass.

The deal was a multimillion-dollar cash-and-stock transaction, according to Glass.

Though Advantia did not need to raise capital for this deal, the company has separately begun early conversations with prospective investor groups as it looks for $40 million to $100 million in potential growth capital, Glass told me.

“We’re not just building a physician group,” he said. “We’re trying to build a transformative health care company.”

As part of the Heartland deal, Advantia is maintaining the Heartland identity in the Midwest and because it has “great brand recognition; we wouldn’t want to throw that away and start from scratch,” Glass said. That will help Advantia build itself in that region as it adds its brand to Heartland’s holdings, he said.

Heartland, which has 26 locations in Illinois and Missouri, plans to open a couple of new medical facilities this spring, now all under the Advantia umbrella: A new 8,000-square-foot obstetrics and gynecology building in Wentzville, Missouri, which will provide 10 new jobs; and a new 16,000-square-foot medical building in Shiloh, Illinois, which will create about 20 new jobs.

Advantia, which has 28 Greater Washington locations, is also looking to add new offices and expand existing square footage for 10 locations by the end of 2019. That includes three innovation centers to test new technologies for patient experience and models for value-based care and reimbursement programs. The company’s new chief medical officer, Dr. Lisa Shah, is spearheading that initiative.

Shah joined Advantia earlier this month from Tacoma, Washington-based Sound Physicians, where she served as chief innovation officer. She’s an alum of both Arlington-based health system consultancy Evolent Health Inc. and D.C.-based health care consulting firm Clinovations,
which sold to the Advisory Board Co. Her hire followed a couple of others for Advantia, when it named Evolent alum Nathan Barbour as its chief growth officer, and appointed former CVS Health exec Mary Langowski to its board.

The deal with Heartland also signals Advantia’s intention to continue growing through acquisitions. The company is shooting to identify two other regions where it will expand in 2020, already starting conversations with potential targets. It’s planning to announce another acquisition in the coming weeks, Glass said, declining to comment further.